JaK Studio pulls off planning for mirror house

JaK Studio has won planning after two years of negotiations for what it has dubbed London’s first “invisible” eco home.

The £250,000 project will convert a pair of derelict garages on a plot in a conservation area in Brockley, south-east London.

The garages and land were initially purchased for £9,000 by a neighbouring resident intent on building a home on the site.

But Lewisham council rejected previous designs, including a revival of the garages’ historic coach house form, and also a house on stilts, on the grounds that they were too prominent and aesthetically out of keeping with the adjacent Victorian terraces.

JaK proposed mirror-cladding the first storey of the building, effectively camouflaging it.

The two-bed house will be built to Passivhaus standards and incorporate a basement and sunken garden as well as a roof terrace.

Jacob Low, founding partner at JaK Studio said: “This project has certainly been an exercise in perseverance and represents a process full of dialogue with my clients, Lewisham planning department and various specialist consultants. As a practice we are proud to have at last won planning on such a constrained site with a bold proposal we believe is a truly unique solution in both conceptual and planning terms.”

Kevin Morton, owner of the garages, said: “We’d been trying to build a house in Lewisham and on this particular plot of land for a long time but given the complications faced, we were really unsure whether this would even become a reality. We owe a huge debt to the patience and creativity of the architects at JaK Studio. We can now start building a house that is completely different to any of the houses in the surrounding area, or even in London itself.”

Work will begin within weeks and is due to be completed early next year.